The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-11-03
PENCIL MARGINAl.IA- sun
DAY READING.
BY II. T. NJ.
Especial Cor. STATE CHRONICLE

Especial Cor. STATE CHRONICLE.I
No class of men in the world have been,
at all times, subjected to more misooncep-
ton and Misrepresentation than literary
men.
Ist). They have been represented, time
and again, as impractical, visionary men,
as far remote as possible from 'men of
affairs" How poorly this comports with
the facts! To begin at the beginning"
Godfrey Chaucer, England's first warb-
ler," was shifty man of every day life,
who knew we'll how to take care Of num-
Der one." Spencer, though certainly a
man of varying fortunes, always had an
eye to the main change, and Shakespeare
especially was a good provider and man
aged to be, while yet in his prime, man
spacious in the possession of dirt" Ba
con, of the same era, thought far too much
of filthy lucre for his own credit with pos
terity. Later on, we have Addison snug
ging himself into the Office of Secretary
of State and marrying the rich dowager
Warwick. Bolingbrooke distinguished
himself even more in politics than with
pen, crowning himself with honors and
titles; Swift lookingiout more for deaneries
and bishopricks than for the glories that
might accrue FROM the Tale of the Tub or
the nrapier Letters, and even reckless Dick
Steele finding cozy place IN the royal
household. In still more modern times,
we find Henry Petty Lord and leader in
grave affairs of State, Macauley occupying
the same position after drafting Code of
Laws for India and holding many stations
requiring the greatest practical capacities;
Sir Walter Scott actually officiating as
Clerk of Sessions Lamartine controlling
the destines of France at time of the
greatest peril, and the Bulwers, Irvings,
Bancrofts, Motleys and Lowells of Eng
land and America transacting as foreign
ministers the gravest affairs of State which
their countries could intrust to them.
(2). Another error quite prevalent, is
that poets can ride no steed but Pegasus,
that when reduced to the realm of prose
they are among the most awkward of
writer's. Scores of instances illustrate the
contrary. The truth is, that the poetical
inspiration which has produced so much of
immortal verse has also produced the most
graceful, the sweetest and the grandest
prose in our language. The poetry of
Burns, heartstirring and piquant, as by
dedication thereof to the Lords ard Gen
tlemen of the Caledonian Hunt" and his
series of exquisite letters to friends.
Even more forcibly may the same be
urged of Mllton's majestic periods, re-
sounding like the voice of the sea, no less
in his sublime defence of the liberty of the
press and kindred prose, than in those i'm
mortal lines which so we'll achieved things
uninterrupted before in prose or rhyme.
Shelly's best prose is scarce inferior to that
undying verse which makes his memory to
shine as a star of quenchless lustre
throughout the night of time. Campbell,
Rogers and many more who are generally
thought of as mere versifers afford furth-
er illustrations of the same truth.
60. The epigram of which Goldsmith
had the benefit (O, that he
"Wrote like an angel and talked like poor
Poll"
has been unjustly applied to too many
other poets. To recur, by the way, to my
last preceding thought, Goldsmith's De
serted Village and Vicar of Wakefield are
prose and poetical brother and sister.
Macauley's conversation was so redundant
that Sidney Smith called his pauses ''bril-
! liant flashes of silence" The stream of
| Coleridge's conversation, according to De
| Quincy, resembled the sweep of the
mighty Amazon, and, in our own country,
| Oliver Wendell Holmes is no less the "Au-
tocrat" of New England's poetical thought
| than of "the breakfast table"